PREVIEW: GS Men's Soccer Travels To Birmingham To Face UAB Tuesday
10/16/2017 3:00:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Eagles look to stay unbeaten on the road against a Blazer team that has yet to drop a non-conference home contest
STATESBORO, Ga. - The Georgia Southern men's soccer team continues its three-game road swing on Tuesday, visiting Birmingham, Ala., for a 7 p.m. contest against UAB at BBVA Compass Field,
The Eagles (6-5) have alternated wins and losses over the last five matches since reeling off a three-match win streak on Sept. 8-19. Georgia Southern's last outing was a 1-0 win at Campbell on Wednesday, October 11, which improved the Eagles' road record this season to 3-0.
Adam Abdellaoui scored the match-winner at the 43-minute mark, while Torgeir Fjaer was brilliant in net with six saves to earn his first shutout of the 2017 season. After the win, the Eagles moved up to No. 85 in the latest NCAA Division I RPI rankings.
"We've talked about momentum before, and it's more of a mindset game. If you're coming off the back of a bad performance, you want to try and eradicate it; if you're coming off of a good performance, you want to replicate it," Head Coach John Murphy said. "I thought we played well at Campbell. I think the way the schedule has shaped up the last couple of weeks, it's given us opportunities to tweak some things. Now we're getting into a stretch of games where we're playing two games a week, which if you're a soccer player, you enjoy."
UAB is 3-5-3 on the season, and is coming off of a 2-0 loss at New Mexico on Saturday. The Blazers have had success in their non-conference matchups, however, going 3-1-2 overall and 1-0-2 at home. In their last home contest, a goal by Aidan O'Hara in the 84th minute gave the Blazers a 2-1 win over Central Arkansas.
"I've known Coach [Mike] Getman for many many years, knew him when he was up at Harvard," Coach Murphy said. "The fact that he's been at UAB for 26 years shows you that time flies. He's built an amazing program. HIs teams are always very athletic, always very techinical. It's going to be a big challenge for us, but this is the type of schedule that we wanted to set up for our boys. We're going to tough places against top competition, and that brings out the best in young players."
UAB leads the overall series between the two teams, 2-0-1, and won the last meeting by a 2-1 score on August 26, 2012, in Birmingham. Follow live stats of the matchup between the Blazers and the Eagles.
